The MBC Wednesday / Thursday drama Fated to Love You ended a few weeks ago via a candy coated fluff of cracktastic rainbow unicorn magic final episode. A remake of a 2008 Taiwanese drama, FtLY was a strong romantic comedy that paired two seasoned actors together as lovers that were…well…fated to be. Time for a Stone Cities series review. Cheers! *insert obligatory Gun GIF below*

Lore: I think I have diabetes from the last episode. Seriously this was an adorable ending for a (mostly) well-executed romantic comedy. Fated to Love You was not perfect but when it was good it was damn good and when it was bad it was easily forgiven.

I usually can divide a drama series review into good and bad elements but with this drama I found that my impressions and final opinions were not so black and white. The things that annoyed me were small portions of the overall story. When everything is said and done I can’t really say I disliked the overall plot I just felt like there were some hiccups along the way.

My main annoyance was that I wanted to slap Mi Young for the first part of the series. Her character was written to be innocent, nice, and kind of an idiot (so I guess she did her job). But maybe she did her job too well – because at times I found her complete lack of a back bone annoying. The three year time jump that occurred mid story was desperately needed to save this character in my book and I consider it a success. I came away from this show liking Mi Young, a huge improvement from when I wanted to knock some sense into her.

Our second leads – Se Ra and Daniel – were annoying as well at different points in the story. Daniel stuck his nose into more things than he should have while Se Ra had a hard time coming off as anything but a total b**ch. But, yet again, I can’t hate either character. I actually think their story resolution was my favorite of the show. I think it was refreshing to see our two second leads find each other at the end, but not in a romantic way. Based on how both of their characters have tasted disappointment throughout the series it was really fulfilling to see them have each other to lean on.

Gun. I am not sure I can accurately say what I think of this character because I am too busy finishing my “Gun Fan Club 2014” scrap book. This character was so over the top (played with great comedic timing by Jang Hyuk) it was hard not to like him – even when he was being a complete and total ass to Mi Young. Which brings me to the noble idiocy part of this story.

Look, noble idiocy can be really terrible for a story in my opinion, usually because it goes on for so long it leaves me frustrated. Fated to Love You played the noble idiocy card fairly well in my opinion (though I did have some side eyeing going on at times). Events moved on and things were not dragged out too long. Of course I was waiting for everything to be resolved but I don’t feel like I had to wait unduly long.

Same with the amnesia portion of the story. I stopped marathoning this show for a few days because of it. (I think my exact words were “Are you f-ing kidding me? Pause – I have had enough amnesia in dramas this year to want to watch this right now. Aish”) I was annoyed that it happened –but once I picked the show up again I was happy they didn’t drag this out for ten episodes. It was wrapped up at a good pace without loosing impact on the overall plot (or suffocating the story).

Three cheers for this shows casting! Jang Hyuk and Jang Na ra have amazing chemistry. I seriously need to find their first drama and watch it. Choi Jin Hyuk did a good job with Daniel. I was really curious going into the show to see how Wang Ji Won did as Se ra since I had only seen her in a small role in Good Doctor – she did not disappoint. I loved the character of Mi Young’s Mom as played by Song Ok Sook and I have to give a shout out to Lee Yong (Choi Woo shik) and Manager Tak (Choi Dae Chul) because they were great as comedic side characters.

All in all Fated to Love You was crack-tastic. It was pretty easy to marathon (once I let go of my amnesia frustrations) and had just the right amount of comedy, fluff, and heart wrenching moments (yeah, I cried. Every couple episodes) to keep me entertained. In terms of the romantic comedies I have watched this year I would put Fated to Love You near the top of the list – second in fact (It’s Okay, That’s Love takes the top spot). While the plot was not exactly original it was well played to the point it did not come off as just another contract-marriage drama. I would recommend this drama to anyone that wants a sweet and funny watch – assuming they can handle all of the sugar and fluff covering the sad parts.

Also I felt the need to point out the following – Gun’s laugh gives me life and this show had the best sex scenes ever. Ever.

E-Kun: As a person who has seen both the Taiwanese and Korean version, I have to say I love this version a whole lot more! It made more sense the way the characters ended up together and there was not a lot of nonsense and unnecessary scenes. Even with the amnesia twist, it last all of 2 seconds and we were able to move on. Jang Hyuk and Jang Na Ra were magical and inspiring as an on screen couple. While this was my first time seeing them, I can see why everyone was excited for their reunion.

There are overall parts of the story that were a bit messy, but I feel overall it was executed well. The parts I didn’t like were just within the story that I never will be down for, no matter how it comes across. The worst part was Daniel (Choi Jin Hyuk). He was very abrasive coming out of the gate and I was not a fan of it. I also felt that Se Ra’s(Wang Ji Won) character was almost moot– While I appreciated the way Korea resolved this over the T- version (Yeah right someone is going have your baby and give it to you and you can stay with the woman you wanted to marry in the first place), it was like Gun and Se Ra were brother and sister all the time. Ironically, Daniel was the brother who was looking for her his whole life.

I too Lore have diabetes from how sweet this resolved! I totally recommend anyone who is looking for something to watch to turn this show on–you will not be disappointed!